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By Katherine Landergan, Town Correspondent

NovoED, an online learning platform, will be offering free courses taught by Babson College faculty starting this fall.

Dennis Hanno, provost and senior vice president of Babson, said that the courses are being offered through Babson Global, a wholly owned subsidiary of Babson College. They are piloting four short courses, which will be similar to courses at Babson.

Hanno said that the pilot courses will help the school determine how to further incorporate online learning in their existing programs.

“It gives us an opportunity to test this delivery format,” Hanno said in a phone interview.

This is the latest news in the online learning movement. In 2012, Harvard University and MIT launched edX, a not-for-profit initiative that offers online classes at no charge. This year the group announced that it is doubling the number of participating universities, with the Berklee College of Music and Boston University among the new members.

Another online learning giant, Coursera, is a for-profit venture founded by two Stanford professors.

The Babson courses include “Financial Analysis of Entrepreneurial Ideas” and “Opportunity and Entrepreneurship.” These classes will be available to the public at no charge.

NovoED was co-founded by a Stanford professor and PhD student. In addition to Babson, Stanford University as well as the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile are offering courses through the platform. According to NovoED's website, the classes are taken by students living in more than 150 countries.

“We are thrilled to be involved with a number of top institutions in this new venture,” Hanno said.

Katherine Landergan can be reached at klandergan@globe.com. For campus news updates, follow her on Twitter @klandergan.